it's either my way or the highway

Where am I?

2010-07-23T17:33:00.004+02:00

This is probably gonna be my last post here on blogger; because I have chosen to move the blog. From now on I am gonna be writing on this address. Please do not be surprised when you see the homepage full of posts written in Turkish language. You can access to the content in English just by clicking the "English" on the upper menu in the web site. The other content (in Turkish) belongs to me as well.

As the web site is pretty new for now, there might be some minor (even major) changes on the appearance of the web site. But I believe, in this way it's gonna be better for everybody.

the spoilsport.

Elif Shafak: The politics of fiction

2010-07-18T19:40:00.004+02:00

Elif Shafak may be the second well known international author of Turkey (after Orhan Pamuk). And here is the talk that she gave in TEDGlobal. She made some good points, worth spreading, as it says in the motto of TED.

the spoilsport.

O2 can "do"

2010-07-16T16:27:00.005+02:00

As you might know O2 is a British originated telecommunication company. But their service is available in some other European countries as well. One of them is Germany. Some of my loyal followers might remember, since I moved to my new place, I couldn't find any internet connection for my flat. Therefore I applied to O2 for DSL after I saw their special offer.

The offer involves 16 Mbit high speed internet, free phone calls to landlines in Germany and some other European countries. Everything seems fine. There are even 2 SIM cards for mobile phone in which the internal calls are free. After my application they said that they were gonna check the technical stuff and let me know if they can provide me the internet. I left the shop happy and hopeful.

One week later, I found the first disappointment in my mail box, a letter which says that they could not provide me the internet I had applied. I thought, it's ok; because it happened before; I was prepared to that, so to speak. But the shocking thing is 3 days later, I received another envelope from O2; a bill (connection price) for the SIM cards, whose packets I hadn't even open.

I went to the same O2 shop with all the letters and bills they had sent me and explained the situation as much as my German allowed me to do so. They understood the stupidity of the situation but they also told me that the money had already been withdrawn from my bank account (which I gave them in order to apply for the internet). Now I have to go to bank to figure out sth. to avoid paying this money. But the total thing is ridiculous. It is like a legal robbery.

So, all in all, when you wanna use any service of O2, I recommend you to think twice. Use O2 at your own risk, because O2 can really "do".

Viva la Espana

2010-07-12T18:22:00.004+02:00

It was over 30 Celcius in Halle, Germany; just before the final game started. Besides that I was surrounded by people who was supporting Holland. One of them was my Dutch friend, which is acceptable. But all the others were Germans, whose asses were kicked by Spain in the semi-final. I guess that is also acceptable somehow.

Before the game I was saying that "either Holland or the reputation of Holland is gonna win tonight". Because Holland has finally and officially given up the "voetbal totaal" with their new trainer, Bert Van Marwijk. On the other hand, although Spain do not play exactly the total footbal, I can still say that, the football they play is a projection of total footbal in 21st century.

Honestly it wasn't a good game as most people expected. Holland's over-aggressive football is the number one suspect on that. But also both two teams, who have never won this trophy before, were quite excited as well. The stress on the players and as well as the supporters increased when both teams failed to score.

In the meantime, when compared to my Dutch friend, I was the one who was more nervous. He is not actually interested in football but I expected from him to be more into the event at least for the final game. However towards the end of the game, he was in the mood, which I hadn't seen in the previous matches of Holland. He was helpful though; He was the most reliable reference about the pronounciation of the names of Dutch players.

In the end, Andres Iniesta's strike brought the cup to Spain. I was happy because the football that Spain played for the couple of years was awarded with the World Cup after the European Championship in 2008.

the spoilsport.

Biking tour under 35 Celcius

2010-07-05T22:51:00.007+02:00

It's summer time (finally). As a group tradition, we had a biking tour last Friday. In my first year in the group it was hiking, the second year it was tracking which I skipped happily (thank God). But this year there was no chance to skip this biking tour.

The plan had been made two weeks earlier than the event. Although we knew that it was gonna be 35 C (95 F), only minority (including me) in the group intended to postpone the tour. But the majority offered the shorten the distance. And it was decided to go on with the biking tour for a shorter distance, 20 km (the initial was 55 km).

We started at 9 am in the morning in order to avoid the intense sun. Everything seemed ok, besides some difficulties while cycling through small hills, but nothing serious. By the way, as I said before the distance was 20 km. But this 20 km was the distance when you look on the google maps. Nobody told me that we were gonna small detour (which added almost 20 more km to the total distance). And unfortunately it was too late when I faced the inevitable truth. The sun was on top of us, more than 30 C. I was getting more and more intimate with the seat of my bike in every cycle. It was so painful that most of us agreed that we had literally understood the meaning of "pain in the ass". I guess at the end of the day I carried the bike than more than it carried me.

Finally around 3:30 pm we reached our destination: a semi natural lake close to a small village called Löbejün. This was the best moment of the day. Just before our bodies melted, the cool water of the lake helped us a lot and it was simply brilliant. There was one little problem though: the way back home. We had to cycle again. But it turned out to be that there was a train station nearby and some of took the train on the way back home, which was the second best thing of the day.

All in all, I can tell you that I have a difficulty in understanding the obsession of these work groups about outdoor sports when it's summer. As a foreigner I am not familiar with the concept. Biking, hiking, tracking, etc... These are supposed to be fun and healthy. But my two experiences tells me that they all turn out to be a torture after a while. If this is fun and healthy, I wanna die as an unhealthy and unhappy person.

the spoilsport.

PS: By the way, this is actually a proper post for you to understand why I have chosen this nickname; "spoilsport" or "spaßbremse" in German.

Maradona vs. Messi

2010-06-24T14:24:00.008+02:00

Look at the similarities:

Dissatisfaction

2010-06-11T18:59:00.002+02:00

7 pm on a Friday evening, still at the office and seems like this situation is gonna last a couple of more hours,

Trying to finish a presentation which I was supposed to submit yesterday,

Looking at NMR spectra which are not even close what I expected,

My laptop is driving me crazy because it's so sloooooowwww,

I am hungry, tired and sleepy and nervous,

Maybe a little bit high as well, because of the smell of the chemicals,

World Cup has started but there is the fucking vuvuzela, touching all the nerves in my brain,

Besides that, still no internet connection at home,

Summer has come at last, but the temperature is sometimes unbearable,

...

I guess, life sucks for me nowadays.

the spoilsport.

Lost in "Lost" Vol. II

2010-05-25T11:15:00.006+02:00

"If the viewer is still lost till the final episode, that means we are successful at what we do."

This was the statement of the producers of the "so called" mind breaking TV Show "Lost". I actually mentioned this in one of my previous posts about Lost. So the show ended, but I am still lost. Okay, let's not say Lost but I must admit that the final wasn't satisfactory. Although it was obvious that they were not gonna explain everything, I was still expecting solid answers for important things about the story.

For instance, the bright light which they claimed to be the source or the heart of the island. The explanation done in the episode called "Across the Sea" wasn't what I expected. Or the numbers. Okay, we know that these were the numbers of the last six candidates, but we were introduced with these numbers long before: Hurley's lotto winning numbers (even before that in the mental institution), in the hatch door (back in 1970s). So these numbers must have been more than that. You can increase the number of unanswered questions.

Especially the last season, the "sideways" part, which in fact weren't, were for nothing. They never happened but were put in the show to dramatize the show for the audience. But all these do not matter any more.

One of my friend told me about lost that, it wasn't the story we were fascinated by, it was how they told the story. All these mysteries, never ending questions and excitement (maybe for the first three season), these were the things we were attracted about Lost. Yet it doesn't change the fact that the show ended abruptly. But again I should give the credit also, I don't think I will get the same pleasure which I had while watching the first 3 seasons of Lost from another TV Show, because of the same reasons I mentioned above.

As Lost ends I will move on with House and Dexter (my personal favorite number 1 and 2 respectively) which have never disappointed me so far. And I guess should also mention the number 3: Battlestar Galactica, from which Lost should learn how a TV show is finalized.

the spoilsport;

PS: About TV series final, I have heard from many people that Six Feet Under has the best series finale ever but I haven't watched it yet, therefore for me still Battlestar Galactica has the best finale ever.

Mission accomplished(!)

2010-05-09T21:13:00.006+02:00

Yep, mission accomplished. That tiring and stressful moving process is over now. So is the organization of the room; thanks to my dearest friends.

Now I have a bigger problem: my internet addiction. Long ago I mentioned it. Actually the first couple of days were not that bad. Having no internet connection at home caused me to spend more time for cleaning and organizing my new flat, reading and watching. But still I must admit that not having an internet connection at home discomforts me. I think that's why I call it an addiction.

My short-term plan is to test myself, if this discomfort fades away or increase on the contrary. Of course it's not gonna be like a painful detox, but it's not gonna be easy for me either. We'll see.

the spoilsport.

Moving

2010-05-03T18:02:00.006+02:00

I totally agree with the cartoon above. I have been moving since two weeks ago (come on, it's a process), but I am lucky that I have friends, who are looking while I am moving.

Moving is a hard, tiring and stressful job though. You can never imagine how many unnecessary stuff a person can keep over time. Papers that you needed only once and years ago, clothes that you've never worn for years, some tools that you even forgot you had, and so on...

For a successful moving, there are some requirements that I realized this time: cartoon boxes, a vehicle to transport the stuff, various tools and a guy who has the talent to use that tools for assembling and dismantling furnitures. The last one is pretty important, if you ask me. Alternatively, couple of ladies to help you clean and organize the new flat. When you have all of these above, nothing can prevent you from succeeding the hard, tiring and stressful moving.

the spoilsport.

Almost dying changes nothing; dying changes everything

2010-04-21T22:28:00.009+02:00

House: Dr. House, I don't think we have met.
Other guy: Dr. Jamey Conway, I have heard your name.
House: Most people have, it's also a noun.

This is only one example of the many arrogant dialogs that belonged to Gregory House, the main character of House MD. As you can see on the left column, House MD is one of the TV Shows that I am following. I must admit that it's the one I enjoyed most recently.

As far as I know the producer of the show, David Shore, was inspired from Sherlock Holmes, while he was creating the main character of the show; Gregory House. Although he didn't know anything about medicine, he chose his character to be a doctor, having the similar characteristics of Sherlock Holmes. And we must also Admit that Hugh Laurie has made a great job. He won the Golden Globe twice for it (2006 and 2007). Here is the casting video of Hugh Laurie for Gregory House.

"As the philosopher Jagger (referring to Mick Jagger) once said 'you can't always get what you want' ". I am not gonna make philosophy but I am gonna tell you why I and many people like this show a lot. At first

you like the character. He is genius, smart, cool, arrogant, jerk (most of the times), drug addict (legally), cripple, and etc. He is a doctor specialized in medical diagnosis (that's also what MD stands for), and he has a team consists of three young and successful doctors. Every episode of the show they get an interesting case that nobody else could solve, they screw up at first, but at the end House solves the puzzle. It sounds like pretty monotonous, doesn't it? It does sound monotonous, but it isn't.

It's now the sixth season, and every episode it gets better, I love it more. Even today, I watched the last episode and I decided to write this post about House. They treated a guy, who was afraid to tell his best friend's girl friend, who he loves, about her feelings. He almost died, and during all his treatment, one of the doctors encouraged him to talk to the girl about his feelings. So, if this was any other TV show, the guy would talk to the girl. But this generally doesn't happen in real life; neither in House. Or another one for example; a patient who doesn't care about what she wants with her life, but accepts the one that the life has brought to her. While she thinks that she is gonna die, she decides to change it. But after she survives, she goes back to her old life. Almost dying changes nothing, dying changes everything. That's also what happens in real life.

And that's why I like House MD and maybe it's the best I have ever seen.

take care till next time;

the spoilsport.

Once & Into The Wild

2010-04-14T22:47:00.008+02:00

If there is one thing common about these movies, it would be that of they both have brilliant soundtrack albums.

Once is an Irish independent movie produced at 2006. It's actually based on songs. Besides that, it's a love story which doesn't have a happy end. That's why it's worth to see and of course listen. The songs played in the movie were performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, who also acted in the movie. I am not gonna spoil the movie for you but I'll add my favorite song from the movie.

The other move is simply the story of a guy, who leaves everything (seriously everything) and goes Into the Wild. The movie was directed by Sean Penn at 2007. It was adopted from a book, but also based on a true story of Chris McCandless. The soundtracks of the movie were performed by Eddie Vedder. And he made a wonderful job that the soundtracks are even better than the movie itself, although the movie is really really good. And finally, here again one of the songs from the soundtrack album.

the spoilsport.

Progress meeting

2010-04-14T10:05:00.004+02:00

First of all, this does not have to be exactly a progress meeting. It could be a business meeting, a weekly or monthly group meeting in a scientific research group or a company; just a meeting where serious issues are discussed on a specific topic.

Imagine a scene; a little crowd , sitting around a rectangular shaped long table. There are papers and folders in front of the people, and a screen view on one of the walls of the room, projected from a beamer, probably attached to the ceiling. Just like a Hollywood movie scene. But this is also where all the similarities between a real meeting and a Hollywood movie end. Because the real meetings are pretty dull. For instance nobody comes with a brilliant idea which will then result dramatical changes on the project. Or, you can't see an outburst such as; a guy standing up and says "you have no fucking idea how ridiculous what you are doing; you can go to hell, i am out of here!". This doesn't happen in real life. Therefore these kind of meetings in real life are really boring.

I should also mention the participants of these meetings. The first kind of people are the ones who has the lowest pay grade among all of them. They are the ones who actually do the things which will be presented in the meeting. But normally the presentation is done by their supervisors or chiefs. In fact those people do not have to attend the meeting but, they are given the opportunity to taste the public humiliation, in case the data they prepared are not enough or conclusive. However, in the opposite case their supervisors get all the credits.

As I said in the previous sentences the supervisors are in the safe zone. In case something goes wrong, they put the blame on their man and can avoid being scolded. And of course there is the boss, who was given the priceless privilege to question anyone and not to be questioned by anyone. They are in a way `the god` in that meeting room.

the spoilsport.

Vienna

2010-04-07T17:52:00.008+02:00

I spent this Easter holiday in Vienna with a couple of friends. We traveled by car, from Halle via Dresden and Prag to the final destination: Vienna. By the way I really have to say this; those highways in Czech Republic are not enough for a European Union country.

Anyway, after a long drive, about 10 hours with breaks, we arrived in Vienna around at 19:00. It took us a few hours to find a hostel to stay, thanks to my adventurous friend Tim, who thought arranging a hostel a week earlier is unnecessary. Fortunately we found a really nice hostel, very comfortable and clean. And even for that night we had time for a glass of drink.

The following morning we headed to the city center for the sightseeing. Vienna is an old historical city and maybe the most organized capital city in Europe. Last year I read that, it was selected as the best city to live. I should say that I agree with them. It is very clean, relaxing but a bit expensive city on the other hand.

In those old buildings you can see the Roman Empire effects, on the statues and sculptures. It kind of surprised me because I haven't seen that impact of Roman Empire any of the German cities I visited earlier. Anyway, it was still nice to see them.

Vienna has lots of museums besides the fact that the city itself is like an open air museum. They have an area called "Museums Quartier". Besides that, there are Fine Arts Museum, Ephesus Museum, Mozart Muesum (of course), and so on. Among them we had the opportunity to visit Ephesus Museum as a result of being Anatolian. In the museum, there were the artifacts from Ephesus, which were taken from Turkey and are being exhibited now in that museum. As it's written there, those artifacts were taken with the permission of Turkish government. That reminded me the Bergama Museum in Berlin. But it's another post subject.

In Vienna you can not only see traditional art but also modern interesting art; which you can see below. The red thing on the first picture is a large column of a human being which is functioning as a bar. The blue thing on the second picture is a sperm. Both of those articles were created by the same guy from plastic; therefore somehow that concerns me.

We ended the first day with listening to Gypsy Jazz. It was a first for me and also for my friends but I must admit that we really enjoyed it.

The second day, the target was Scloß Schönbrunn. It was a little bit out of the center, so we took the U-Bahn (subway) and get to the palace at noon. As it was Easter time it was full of tourists and as a result of that there was a huge cue for the palace. Instead of waiting we skipped the palace part and start walking through the park. Then we realized that we made the right choice. There was a huge garden ahead of us, even a zoo located in. The view from the top was even more beautiful that it's seen on the photo below. If you ever go to Vienna, don't come back before seeing that fantastic garden.

The Schloß tour took almost all the afternoon, and we were pretty exhausted after 2 full day. So we went to the Urban Beach which is an artificial beach located next to the water channel. Couple of hours resting and enjoying the drinks, we were almost done with Vienna. The next morning we drove back to good old Halle.

It was a really nice trip after all, and I should really recommend you to see Vienna if you haven't yet. It is the most beautiful city I have ever seen so far; of course besides Istanbul. Finally I add a video of a street performance which we took on the streets of Vienna.

take care till next time;

the spoilsport.

Heroin

2010-04-06T13:18:00.002+02:00

It seems like once it was a pharmaceutical drug. And it was used as sedative for coughs as it is written in the picture. Interesting!

I guess Aspirin was not the only breakthrough for Bayer. It was marketed as a "non-addictive" replacement for morphine which had been then (1890s) used for cough suppressant.

the spoilsport.

PS: The figures taken from the Wikipedia page of heroin.

Holiday, Road Trip, Sightseeing

2010-04-05T21:31:00.007+02:00

Holidays are the best times of the year for everyone. If you are a student, it's good; but if you are working, it's even better. After I had started my PhD (it's more like a profession in Europe), I have been looking forward to every single holiday. By the way, I don't consider weekends as holidays. A real holiday is the day you take off, when everybody else is working.

People can spend their holidays in many ways. But travelling is one of the most efficient way of spending a vacation time. Going to places you haven't seen before, knowing about different cultures... Besides summer and winter tourism, I like the culture tourism more; because you see and learn many new things while you also have fun.

In Europe, travelling by train is very popular, however travelling by car or plane is also fun if you can afford. A good car is essential for the holiday, because the travelling is an important part of the whole holiday as well. Otherwise you might have to push the car, kind of payback. Glad that we haven't experienced it yet. Travelling by plane spares you more time for sightseeing but then it prevents you from seeing some other beauty on the road. And if you are travelling by car, you should keep someone who can read map, on the front right seat. They are pretty handy on the way.

The thing of culture tourism is the sightseeing. When you visit a historical city; what a coincidence, we have lots of them in Europe; you feel like you have to see every important building, park, garden, palace, tower etc. It's actually funny to see all those people staring at those old buildings as if they are architectural experts and they are preparing a detailed report about them.

Another essential thing about culture tourism is taking photos. In order to prove that you were actually there, you should take photos. But taking photo is another problem. Let's assume that you are travelling with friends i.e. as a group, when you see a good view (a fountain for instance), all of you wanted to take a photo. You took all the combinations but one is missing: the one that you all are in. Then you have to ask someone else to take photo of you. But you can't ask every time. Actually I have a solution offer for this problem: "designated photographers". These designated photographers can be provided by tourist information centers, and should be professionals. Therefore you could get your photo taken with higher quality and you wouldn't have to solve advanced combination problems. (Ok, this was a joke maybe, but taking photos can be a real pain in the ass sometimes). By the way Japanese people are upgraded to video cameras nowadays. When they need a photo, they take snapshot from the video.

One last thing I believe about sightseeing or vacation in general, is that you don't have to see everything, i.e. you don't have to run for something all the time. You can go to your hotel or hostel, when you feel tired. But what people think is actually the opposite. They want to spend every minute of their holiday as efficient as possible. That in fact makes you tired. And I am already getting tired when I am working. Therefore I believe during my vacation, I deserve to get some rest too.

take care;

the spoilsport.

Road trip

2010-04-02T00:27:00.004+02:00

A new holiday, a new road trip. Finally the route has been set. The target is Vienna, via Dresden and Prag.

Happy Easter to all of you. Frohe Ostern!

take care;

the spoilsport.

Bro's before Hoe's

2010-03-30T21:40:00.004+02:00

This expression is usually used when a friend of yours (bro) ditches you, in order to hook up or hang out or just spend his time with a girl (hoe). For the opposite sex, the expression is "sisters before mister's". Kinda "need to remember" thing; because you never know when to use these kind of expressions.

You make a plan with your friends. You discuss every detail on weekly conference calls (that was for fun, not serious). On the other hand, the sun finally stopped hiding and showed itself. Simply everything is set for the Easter plan. But one of the bro's ditches you. That's where the above expression comes in. What would you do? You just be more cautious from now on when you make plans.

By the way these plans are not easy to make. We are actually on another conference call right now (except the guy who ditched us) to discuss the details but unfortunately we haven't come to an agreement at any of the subjects.

I hope we can get to our target destination safe, despite of some unexpected things(!).

take care till next time;

the spoilsport.

Lost in "Lost"

2010-03-26T20:03:00.005+01:00

I think there is nobody on this world who hasn't heard about "Lost", the TV series, even some of whom never watched it. Therefore I am not gonna say that Lost is blah blah... Everybody has their own opinion about it. What I am actually interested in about Lost, is the reaction of the people who follow this show.

The rest of this post might contain general spoiler about the show, so read at your own risk.

The most apparent symptom of the followers of Lost is the inevitable tendency to create theories about the show. Right now it's the 6th season of the show playing on TV. As you expect the theories which were created in the first season and now are poles apart. In the first season it was just the story of survivors of a plane crash on a mysterious island (yeah that's simply the plot); while in the sixth season, it turned out to be the fight of good and evil. How the hell did we come to this point; nobody knows. But they keep creating theories with more ambition as their previous theory fails.

Besides these theoreticians, there are the math geniuses: This type of followers apply the advanced mathematical formulas for the every number they see on the show in order to obtain the magic numbers of Lost; which are 4 8 15 16 23 42. Their colleagues are the ones who are obsessed with the words. From the name of every shop, or a word in a newspaper or so on, they try to find an anagram or an ambigram or whatsoever.

There are also some complainers. These kind of followers always look for logical or individual mistakes on the show. They watch the show frame by frame (index finger on the space bar) in order not to miss any detail. When they find one, they become the happiest person for a moment (at least I believe that they should be, because otherwise it doesn't make any sense).

These are the most general characteristics of the followers of the show; of course there are minor symptoms too. Me? As in the title I am lost in Lost. But I consider myself on the right way. Because there is a statement from one of the producers of the show: "If the viewer is still lost till the final episode, that means we are successful at what we do."

take care till next time;

the spoilsport.

FYI

2010-03-05T22:33:00.003+01:00

I have started a new blog, but this time only in Turkish. It seems like I am starting to love this blogging thing. Anyway for any of you who might be interested here is the link to it.

take care till next time;
the spoilsport.

Smooth Criminal by violin (David Garrett)

2010-02-26T09:39:00.002+01:00

Some kind of talent which should be respected.

7 interesting things about the spoilsport

2010-02-21T11:59:00.005+01:00

This week, I was asked to write 7 interesting things/truth about me. And when the request comes from Juve, it's impossible to decline. As far as I understand, this is kind of a blogger culture: to ask a blogger to do (mostly write) about some specific things; and this request passes through another blogger. So let's begin:

First of all, it's either my way or the highway. As you see this is also the title of my blog. But I suppose I should explain this a little bit. When something concerns only me, it has to be in my way, no objection. And the subject doesn't matter; it can be a simple thing like washing the dishes or a very serious thing which I do not recall any at this moment. But the idea is clear enough I guess. On the other hand when something does not concern me directly at all, I do not care. If I am involved in a group plan, I specify my boundaries and do not interfere more than I have to. I know this might sound selfish perhaps but, there is no other way for me.

Secondly, I remember. I remember almost everything. As if I blessed with the ability not to forget. But sometimes it can be considered as a curse instead of bless. Because I still remember a phone numbers I used to know years ago and I will have nothing to do after now. I remember names, faces or who said what and when, even after long time.

Then there is the order thing. In my territory I have my own order. For you that might seem chaotic but I know what is where. And when someone intervenes my order I wouldn't like it. My reaction to that depends on that someone. For instance; if there is a book or a glass on the floor, that should stay there. Because next time when I need it, I will know that it's there. So please do not pick it up to table.

I do not like crowded gatherings, meetings. Therefore instead of going to a party, I would like to sit in a cafe with close friends.Even my nickname comes from this: spoilsport (spassbremse in German). And when I go to parties or such crowded places, there is a good chance that I will be bored and start observing people. I hate myself about it, because it's not fun at all.

The fifth one is about the technology, Juve and I have this in common I guess. If there is a new technology about electronics, or the Internet and so on, I have to know about it. Even if I don't use it or like it.

I like cinema a lot. I do not mind watching a good movie many times, as if I am listening to a nice song. My interest to cinema can even be considered as an addiction or an obsession.

And finally, despite of the above things (except 5 and 6) I usually get along with people very well, and they usually do the same with me. I suppose, this is my charm :)

take care till next time;
the spoilsport

My Apologies

2010-02-20T18:30:00.006+01:00

During this week, I supervised master students of polymer science program on polymer synthesis lab course; in other words I was being a "lab assistant". Perhaps this might sound quite serious and even cool maybe, but in fact, it wasn't much different than babysitting; only the babies were quite older.

But before that I must mention this: When I was studying, I used to believe that the lab assistants would know everything; at least everything about the experiments and the lab. And when I was the assistant this week, I realised that the above belief isn't true. When something goes wrong you have to explain why it went wrong. You are somehow responsible from everything, and it's not always good.

Chemistry labs have some basic rules which can not be broken. But they are somehow flexible when you have enough experience in the lab. Of course this flexibility does not apply to these students. Therefore everything on that lab had to be done by the book. Students had already been provided by the procedures which they had to follow in order to perform the experiments. After a short instructions talk about the lab rules they started on Monday morning.

There were 6 of them, and 4 of them had had no chemistry lab experience. As they did not know the name of the equipments only the check in (handing over necessary equipments; such as glass wares) took almost 2 hours. And after that the real trouble started: the oral tests before each experiment. These oral test are compulsory for the students, without passing them, they wouldn't be allowed to carry out the experiment. I will not go into the details, because it's not gonna make sense. But all I can tell you is most of them were hopeless.

But the real nightmare was to see them performing(!) the experiments. I saw students looking at a round bottom flask as if they were staring a hand grenade. (Ok, this last sentence might be a little exaggeration, but the actual situation was something like that). There were also students who did not know how to use a Pasteur pipette or splashing solvents and other dangerous chemicals all over the lab.

The funny thing was when I or my other colleagues tried to warn them or expected them to do simple things when they couldn't, they had two constant sentences on their mouth: "I am here to learn", and "the procedure is not clear". First of all, I can not teach anything to anyone who is not willing to learn, and second the procedure is fucking clear. I mean one of these students was claiming that the question, which my colleague asked him in the oral test, was irrelevant to the subject. But the real reason of this argument is that of he got no idea about the answer. Besides, he is not in the situation of debating if the question is relevant or not.

After all it's been a really ridiculous week for me, also exhausting. But this week reminded me my past years of education; the times that I was the student and someone else was the lab assistant. Sure there were times that I was a pain in the ass for my former assistants. Therefore I would like apologize to all my former lab assistants for my unpleasant behaviour if there were any.

take care;
the spoilsport.

A New Blogger Among Us

2010-02-13T20:52:00.004+01:00

A good friend of mine has finally started his blog which he has been planing for a long time. He is gonna write about the places he travels, so it's gonna be a travelling blog in fact; by the way he travels a lot. And there are already some writings he had alredy written, therefore soon he is gonna publish many posts. The language will be English and Turkish. And yeah, I guess that's it. Here is the blog address and a big welcome to him from me.
take care till next time;
the spoilsport.

Beirut

2010-02-12T10:42:00.005+01:00

I recently heard about this band on Facebook by chance. Beirut is an American indie-rock band and they have a really nice looking official website where you can get more information about the band. In my opinion they are worth to give a try.

And this is a live performance of the band performing the song called "Gulag Orkestar".

take care till next time;
the spoilsport.

Whatever Works

2010-02-11T10:46:00.015+01:00

Woody Allen is an actor, a screenwriter, a director and many other things in fact. What I like about him is his sence of humor and point of view about man-woman releationships. In that case his movies are mostly on this subject, of course on his own way. I beleive that "Annie Hall" is his masterpiece although I haven't seen all his movies. So there is a new movie of him on theaters nowadays: "Whatever Works" in which I found similarities with "Annie Hall" and that's why I liked it very much.

Larry David acts in the movie as a genius physicist(shit, i had to check the dictionary for this word twice!) Boris, who intends to isolate himself from the society, friends and everything. He also has some psycological problems such as in the middle of the night he can wake up and he can be terrified with the idea that he is gonna die "eventually". Althoug he tries to exclude himself from life, he has one; not a perfect one maybe but which he is satisfied with. One day everything changes with meeting a young girl, Melody (Evan Rachel Wood), who is nowhere near Boris' intellectual level or scientific background. But they become friends and that's all I am gonna say for now in order not to spoil the movie for you.

Boris says in the movie; "the expectations that you have when you are young, after experiencing the life, are reduced to whatever works". (It's not the exact quote, but it was pretty much like this). That's kind of overoptimistic point of view about life if you ask my opinion. I mean, being satified with anything you get and not asking for more. Maybe he is right, because once I heard that "there is no disappointment, there are great expectations".

take care till next time;
the spoilsport.

Law Abiding Citizen

2010-01-26T15:37:00.005+01:00

Law Abiding Citizen is a new movie (towards the end of 2009) in which Jamie Foxx and Gerard Butler shares the starring role. It's simply an action movie about taking revenge from the justice system after realizing that the justice has not been served as it should be.

The main plot might not be genuine, but the reaction of the guy who wants to take revenge is worth to respect. Yet the finale of the movie prevents it to be a masterpiece; at least that's what I beleive. I will not give any more spoiler in order not to ruin your fun if you wanna see the movie.

What I want to say is what movie made me think about. When I see the movie I couldn't help but think: what would someone do if he or she lost the faith in justice system as in the movie. First of all I suppose nobody would think about fighting with the system untill something unfair happens to them. I also assume that we all are grown enough to realize that life is not fair. However justice may be the only thing it should be perfectly fair. But sometimes it isn't. [There is a funny remark: in my language justice (adalet) is derived from fair (adil)]. Anyway you realize the lacking points or the corruption of the system if you are the aggrieved person.

In the movie one of the guilty person is pardoned because he made a negotiation with the police although he deserved worse. In my country children serve years for stealing food while people who caused bankrupt of companies and harmed many others as a result of that. Or again in my country, rapers are aslo pardoned if they agree to marry the rape victim. And they call this justice. I don't want a justice which is not fair to everyone in the soceity without any exception.

All in all, the movie is definitely worth to see. The criticism to the justice system and the reaction of the aggrieved guy is successful, so is acting.

take care till next time;
the spoilsport

Istanbul

2009-12-29T09:53:00.009+01:00

I have wanted to write about my dream city and heimat Istanbul for along time. I guess now is the time. Before starting, I must warn you that this is not gonna be an objective writing.

People whoever I told that I am from Istanbul have an idea about the city. And what they mostly think is that of Istanbul is big. Istanbul is indeed big. Officially 12 million people lives in Istanbul (non officialy more than 15 million), and this makes Istanbul the 5th most crowded city of the world. But the huge number of inhabitants is not the only thing about the city.

Istanbul had been the capital city of 3 of the biggest empires of the history: Roman Empire, Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire and Ottoman Empire starting from 330 AC till 1922. You can imagine the history and the culture that the city has absorbed. You can find a synagogue, a church and a mosque (each are at least hundreds year old) in less than a square kilometer.

During the history, Istanbul has always been an important gate from Black Sea to Mediterranean Sea and also the bridge between Europe and Asia. And if I am not mistaken, Istanbul is one of the two cities which have lands in two continents (the other one is also in Turkey, Canakkale).

Ortaköy Mosque and Bosphorus Bridge

Hagia Sophia Museum and Bosphorus

Since the foundation of Turkish Republic, although Ankara is the capital city, Istanbul is still biggest and the most important city of Turkey. It is finance, education and culture center of Turkey.

Nowhere in the world you can have your luch in Asia and have the dinner in another continent (Europe) but in Istanbul; without changing the country or even the city. In another point of view, you can drink to death in Europe and suffer the hangover in Asia in the following morning (that's mostly the case actually).

Istiklal (Freedom) Setreet

Maiden Tower

There are many places to see and visit in Istanbul, but I put here two of most I like. The first is the Istiklal Street which is pure history and stylish. the second is the Maiden Tower which you can find the history and the amazing legend behind it on the link.

What I think or feel about Istanbul has changed over the years, especially since I went to Germany. When you are abroad you can see the whole picture better. But there is also an advantage of being away from Istanbul: you always remember the good things about it. Nevertheless I love Istanbul.

I also want to give you the description of a perfect day in Istanbul: You have the breakfast in Çengelköy, on the Asian shore of Istanbul, with (kind of) bagel and tea maybe with some cheese or marmalade (it's up to you), then you can walk to Beylerbeyi (or alternatively you can cross the Bosphorus to Ortaköy) also on the Bosphorus coast to have Turkish coffee. And then you can eat fish for lunch in Kandilli or Bebek (they are the districts on Bosphorus coast exactly the opposite of each other). In order to digest the food I would recommend you to have walking trip around Sultanahmet where you can find the most touristic place of Istanbul with lots of museum and other sightseeing areas. When it's starting to getting late, it's time to go to Istiklal Street where you can have your dinner and afterwards you can find lots of cafes and pubs.

Of course this plan may differ depending on your interest, but basically it would be something like this.

This summer hopefully I will have the chance to invite some friends to Istanbul and I'll be pleased to be their tourguide during their visit. And for those of you who are looking for a place to visit in the means of culture tourism, Istanbul is strongly recommended.

tace care till next time,

the spoilsport

avatar

2009-12-24T19:31:00.010+01:00

It's said that James Cameron; the director, the producer and the screenwriter of the first two films of the Terminator series and Titanic; has been waiting to make this movie (Avatar) since 1980s. The reason for this waiting was that of the technology had not been able to reach his imagination so far. But fortunately technology has developed enough and now we are able to see this great movie in theaters. And I must admit that thisa waiting is definitely worth it.

I am not an expert on this visual effects therefore I do not have much to say. However I can tell you that it was far better than what i expected. But (according to a friend and i agree) it wasn't like there was an exaggeration about this 3d thing. As far as I see 3d technology was used just as needed. And that makes the movie better in my point of view.

Reader discretion is advised, the rest of the content might contain spoiler. Therefore read it at your own risk!!!

About the movie, the plot is nothing like extraordinary. In the future the human beings have colonized other planets for resources and they are in a fight with the native inhabitants of the planets. We see this movie everyday in today's world, of course the planets are countries in that case. But the world (in fact the universe) that is created in the movie makes it extraordinary; along with the visual effects.

However I noticed two interesting monologs that summarizes the movie maybe even the reality in today's world. First one was said by the civillian leader of human beings in the colony: "we give them medicine, we give them education; but they still want mud" which shows some resembelence with the attitude of some countries who claims that they bring peace! and democracy! where they actually invade. The second one was said by the avatar Jake Sully when he is desperately waiting while hemans are attacking the natives: "so that's it. if there is something you want but someone else owns it; you declare them as your enemy and you have the right to attack them to get what you want". (The monologs might not be exactly correct but more or less they were like these) This second one indicates the truth that everybody knows but pretend not to. That's right. Someone got oil, someone got some valuable mines, what others do is to create excuses to get them by force.

Spoiler ends!!!

Anyway this is not the topic. All in all, Avatar is a movie that might change all cinema industry (according to the comments) because of the novelty that it brought into the cinema. Even if not, I tell you that it is one of the "must be seen" movies. And if you have the opportunity do it in IMAX 3D.

take care till next time,

the spoilsport.

Dexter

2009-12-18T22:11:00.004+01:00

Do you know who Dexter Morgan is? Dexter Morgan is an orphan, an adopted son, a brother, later on a husband and a father and a blood analyst in Miami Metro Police Department; but more importantly he is a serial killer. Of course all of those are fiction. In fact, Dexter Morgan is a character on a TV show "Dexter".

How would a person like a serial killer? Dexter Morgan makes this possible. The character is performed by Michael C. Hall. And I must admit that any other person couldn't fit better for this character.

Reader discretion is advised, the rest of the content might contain spoiler. Therefore read it at your own risk.

The first couple of episodes of the first season of the show are like an introduction as usual for every TV series. We learn why Dexter is like how he is, a serial killer. And we learn that he has a "code" from his deceased father who was a detective in Miami Metro where Dexter works as a blood analyst. As Dexter disguises his dark side as an ordinary man on the backstage he continues his killing to feed his beast inside. But according to the code he only kills killers. He is always overcautious in order not to get caught which is also one of the rules from his code.

But the thing is the image of the character "Dexter Morgan" shaped in people's mind is a man without any feeling or conscious. He is not a genius but smart, however he sucks at personal relationships whereas he can kill a man after work and make it home to catch Letterman Show as if none of the killing ever happened (these are almost his own words actually).

The scenario itself is brilliant. In the first season he killed his biological brother at the season finale. When everybody thought what could be happen in the second season more interesting than a man killing his own brother. Because it was like the story was finished. But unexpectedly the second season was better and more intriguing than the first season. In the third season he found himself a friend, i mean real friend. Someone who knows who he really is. Apparently it didn't work out. And finally in the fourth season he found himself a role model. As you expect, it didn't work out for him either.

Now it is the season break and all the fans are thinking "what else could happen in the next season. But i am sure that it will be perfect again as it always is.

My advice to you if you have the opportunity, give it a try.

take care till next time,

the spoilsport.

Fatih Akin in Halle 2

2009-12-13T11:53:00.003+01:00

Yes, we were there but unfortunately the tickets were sold out, therefore we couldn't see the movie. Actually I was quite confused about it, as I did not except this much interest in Fatih Akin and his movie in such a small city. I guess it was a good thing.

However, we had the chance to meet Fatih Akin luckily. We also had the opportunity to have little chat about the movie. He was actually friendly with us. He talked about the movie a little bit and unfortunately had to leave.

On the other hand, the movie will start on 25th of December in Germany and 1st of January in Turkey. I suppose I will be able to see it in Turkey (in that case juve, please be aware). And I guess that was it.

take care till next time,

the spoilsport.

Fatih Akin in Halle

2009-12-11T17:11:00.005+01:00

Fatih Akin is a talented Turkish director (at least he has a Turkish origin) who was born in Germany. He's produced successful films such as "Im Juli", Gegen die Wand", "Auf der anderen Seite".

And today I heard that he is going to be in Halle tomorrow (12.12.09) for the preview of his latest movie "Soul Kitchen" and a conversation about his movies and cinema generally. The event will take place in Luxkino Am Zoo. (Conversation starts at 15:30 and the movie starts at 18:00)

So i'll be there and hope i am gonna share my experiences with you. And for those of you who are able to go there, it's strongly recommended, you would never regret.

take care till next time,

the spoilsport

In Bruges

2009-12-08T23:32:00.006+01:00

Two men, who kill for money, are sent to fucking!* Bruges by their boss for vacation and they do some sightseeing and killing afterwards. This sentence would simply summarize the plot of the movie "In Bruges". Even the motto of the movie is "shoot first, sightsee later".

It is a British movie by Martin McDonagh, shot in 2008. Colin Farrel and Brendan Gleeson are the leading actors. In Bruges is the second movie of the director after a short movie. I that case I must admit that I found the movie even more successful after I learned this fact.

It's kinda absurd movie. Dialogs are realistic yet they are also funny. And those two killers are more sentimental than even you and I are. One of them is fascinated by Bruges whereas the other hates it. During the movie it feels like you are sightseeing of the city together with the guys as well. Therefore Bruges reaches towards the top of "the cities must be seen list". However especially Colin Farrel's comments about Bruges are remarkable. And of course the movie does not consist of sightseeing of Bruges only but i don't wanna spoil it for you even though it sounds a bit contradictory to my nickname.

After all it's pretty good movie. And I am sure of that after seeing this movie you would also like to see Bruges, so watch it at your own risk.

take care till next time,

the spoilsport

* you will understand why i wrote like that when you see the movie.

one small remark

2009-12-08T15:02:00.003+01:00

Today I have realized that, there was a problem about posting comments; special thanks to juve.

Therefore in order to fix this i have had to change the whole template and i like this one more. Anyhow, hope you will like it to and you can of course add your comments about the posts.

take care till next time,

the spoilsport

Marburg, Heidelberg, Road Trip

2009-12-07T23:17:00.008+01:00

I have had a great time on this weekend. And guess what i am gonna share it with you. After long discussions on skype I and two of my friends; Tim and Burak, decided to go to Köln (Cologne) for the weekend with a slight detour to Marburg in order to visit Tim's lovely friend Elena.

Tim and the Mazda

Friday night after a 4 hour drive we arrived in Marburg around 12 pm. After a short refreshing time we hit the city for a party and it was fun. But for me the real fun started the following day. By the way, thanks to Elena we gave up the idea to go to Köln, instead we decided to go to Heidelberg which is a really great city as well as Marburg.

Marburg is a small city located in middle Germany with approximately 80000 inhabitants. Population is quite young when compared to other German cities and this is because of the University of Marburg which is known as the first Protestant university in the world. Medicine, law and theology departments of the university are pretty successful as i heard from our excellent tour guide Elena.

Tim, Elena and Burak

We only saw the historical part of the city (Altstadt) which was actually pretty much all of the city. The city has lots of ups and downs which is not common for German cities when you consider that Germany has a reputation about being a flat country (except south eastern part). The streets were lighted up because of upcoming Christmas and they looked simply brilliant. (By the way, Christmas time is a really good time to visit a city).

pictures from Marburg Altstadt

Before we left Marburg, we climbed up to the castle for the excellent view of the city. Unfortunately as our camera is not that good i am not able to share any photos of this great view. But I'll try to help you create a picture on your head: For those who can afford, go see by yourselves. Hope the picture is clear enough.

After a delightful meal and drinks along with nice conversation with Elena for the last time, we hit the road again, this time for Heidelberg.

Heidelberg is a bigger city than Marburg with approximately 150000 inhabitants. The city is divided into two by the River Neckar. It's one of the most touristic city of Germany, and the biggest reason of this is the Heidelberg Castle. Since the beginning of the 19th century Heidelberg has been known as the mecca of German romanticism. The castle, the streets attract lovers; as they say so.

We arrived in the city again at night. We did not have any Elena here unfortunately, so we checked in a hostel and left immediately to find a park place for the car. But instead we found ourselves at the castle luckily. Because we were not gonna have the chance to see the castle at night in the following day (duty calls). We enjoyed the brilliant view of the city and left the car there at our own risk and took the stairs down to the hostel.

Heidelberg Castle

pictures from city center Heidelberg

In the next day, we attended a religious ceremony in the church, walked in the beautiful streets and finally headed up to the castle again in order to see it under day light this time. We took the funicular railway from center to the castle. It actually reminded me the "Tunnel" in Istanbul from Karaköy to Istiklal, but only this one was quite modern not historical. Anyway at the castle, we had the chance the see the city from top in day time again. Actually I liked the night version more, but it was definitely worth to see in day time as well.

Finally it was time to turn back to Halle and say goodbye to Heidelberg. After 6 hours road trip we arrived in Halle, we were all tired and poor Burak had to go on to Dresden, but this was one of the best trips of my life.

take care till next time;

the spoilsport

PS: Here are the wikipedia (Marburg, Heidelberg) about those cities I mentioned for those of you who might be interested.

Welcome

2009-12-07T18:23:00.006+01:00

The picture of this handsome guy, you see below, belongs to my recently born nephew. Now he is 2 days old and i am looking forward to seeing him. Luckily I'll be able to see hem in less than 2 weeks.

Although i had known that i would be an uncle of course, when i heard for the first time 2 days ago, I was so happy. I was with 3 good friends and it was even better share this happiness with them. I felt also a bit disappointed though, because i wasn't there with my nephew and of course with my sister on the day of the birth. But in fact, that doesn't matter after all. They were both healthy and in good condition, so there was nothing to worry.

Now being an uncle will change somethings. I feel like i have more responsibilities than i used to (and a bit older i suppose). I mean, imagine that there is someone on this world and i am uncle of this someone, my nephew. My feeling actually are still a bit confused and i am still excited about it, therefore excuse me if i am writing bullshit. But i wanted to write this post because it's really important for me. And I hope he will read this one day and know that i care for him even if i am away from him.

Anyway, wellcome again my nephew; i will try to be the uncle you deserve and i will always be there for you when you need me.

Hustle and The Prisoner

2009-11-29T03:19:00.006+01:00

In one of the previous posts I mentioned my addictions to TV series. And now I have two recommendations for those of you who like them.

The first one is "Hustle". It is a British series about con men. The group consists of five "gifted" grifters (the members change in the 4th and the 5th season but there are always 5 of them). The leader, the roper, the guys who can fix everything, the apprentice and of course a beautiful lady for distractions. According to the series the first rule of the con is that of "You can cot con an honest man". Perfect plans, cunning moves, brilliant ideas. But things get messy sometimes as expected and we end up stories worth to be seen. It also reminds a bit of Guy Ritchie movies in that manner, but you can also taste British humor that I have always liked.

The second one is called "The Prisoner". It is actually a mini series consists of six episode and remake of the original which was produced in 1960s. The main character wakes in a desert one day without knowing how he got there and finds a civilization where the inhabitants call "The Village" and are convinced that there is nowhere else. The inhabitants are called by numbers instead of names. The main story is that the main character trying to escape from the village and go back to real world by overcoming many obstacles. A never ending mystery and tension. And you will also see a psychological change of the main character during the series.

I can assure you that you won't be wasting your time if you get the chance to see those series.

take care till next time,

the spoilsport

Zeki Demirkubuz

2009-11-06T02:41:00.019+01:00

I like cinema and especially independent movies. You know; low budget, poor acting because of amateur actors and actresses (mostly but there are exceptions). But independent movies are somehow different. Because what they tell in the movie does not matter as much as how they tell it. Every director has their own way or style of making a movie, but those who make independent movies have very distinctive way.

Zeki Demirkubuz is one of those directors. He is also considered to be one of the best directors in Turkey according to many critics. He is Turkish but (i think) all of his movies have been also shown in film festivals in Europe. He is not as famous as Nuri Bilge Ceylan who won the best director award in the last Cannes International Film Festival, but he is still my favorite. He spent 3 years in prison, where he decided to be a director, because of his political beliefs (yeah unfortunately that happens in Turkey).

He has made 8 movies so far; "Block-C (C Blok)", "Innocence (Masumiyet)", "The Third Page (Ucuncu Sayfa)", "Fate (Yazgi)", "Confession (Itiraf)", "Waiting Room (Bekleme Odasi)", "Destiny (Kader)" and the last one "Envy (Kiskanmak)". I have seen 6 of them except Block-C and Envy. One can say that Zeki Demirkubuz is obsessed with doors (actually the doors that can't be closed) after seeing his movies. Although he says there is no secret message behind that most people (including me) believe that there is something with that. He is a quite Dostoyevski fan, he even says that "what is the point of reading other books after Dostoyevsky"; and Dostoyevsky in "Crime and Punishment" relates the unclosed doors with hope as even the most desperate person has somewhere to go if there is an open (or unclosed) door. Besides the doors dialogs are really significant in his movies. They don't sound unnatural on the contrary they are quite realistic. And after a certain point you realize that the dialogs overcome the actors or actresses and become the leading role in the movie. In every movie of Zeki Demirkubuz there is at least one dialog which is the peak point of the movie. There you acknowledge the success in casting. Because those dialogs and sometimes monologues perfectly fit to the actor or actress. Therefore we can say that the acting is unexpectedly brilliant in his movies.

My favorite movie among those 8 movies is "Innocence". He describes his own movie with the following words: A man who is in love with crime, a woman who is in love with the man and another man who is in love with the woman. But there is no love triangle in the movie, in fact there is no love at all. "Destiny" on the other hand is the story of early years of the characters in "Innocence". "Fate" (adopted from the novel "The Stranger" by Albert Camus) is a story about a man who does not care anything at all. In "Waiting Room" he tells his own story: A director who wants to make the movie of "Crime and Punishment", he even acts in the movie as himself.

And today (6th of November 2009) his last movie "Envy" is on theaters in Turkey. I assume I'll not be able to see it till the end of December, because there is no way i can see it here in Halle. As I have seen from the trailer it seems different than the previous ones but it does not reduces my expectations.

So by any chance, if you have an opportunity to see one of his movies (maybe in a festival or so) i recommend you to give it a try at least. I assure you that you will not be disappointed.

take care till next time;

the spoilsport.

chemists are thieves

2009-10-21T09:57:00.014+02:00

Our department at the university has been mooving since last week. Therefore there has been no chemistry for us to do. But of course packing, organizing and cleaning (i mean all time wasting and boring things) were done by us (me and my colleagues). After that there was this "unpacking" procedure which is very critical for all of us who work at labaratories.

The lab equipments (not the instruments or big things but the small ones such as glasswares, spatulas, markers, corkrings, clamps etc.) are very important for a chemist. You can't imagine how difficult to keep your belongings safe. Possessing more equipments increases your functionality and decreases the time that you spend for a reaction or procedure at lab. And unfortunately sharing and borrowing these equipments does not work at the chem labs. You can't share because you might need one particular thing at the same time and the other colleagues might not leave the things clean. And also you can't lend your stuff to others because there is no guarantee that it will come back. So there is only one option left if you are short in equipment and that is stealing. I believe that all chemist are thieves; but in an innocent way (I don't know how that's possible bu it is). But this stealing is somehow balanced in a workgroup: I steal from a colleague, this colleague steals from another colleage and this other coleague steals from me; consider it as a circulation of equipments or kind of a loop.

So after moving, we unpacked the equipments. Although everybody had labeled their stuff by name everybody had to claim their own belongings anyway. I really feel sorry for those who were not on time that day but not as much as i feel happy for myself. I am not the one who is to blame here, but the circumstances. :-)

take care till next time,

the spoilsport

i am an addict

2009-10-16T19:15:00.008+02:00

Recently i saw a news about facebook, actually a girl who is addicted to facebook and had an attempt to "quit". She could only stand ten days. Here is the story for those of you who are interested.

Then i thought about my addictions, actually my virtual addictions. Because her experiences that she had in these 10 days were not that unfamiliar for me. I spend hours on Facebook too, (in that point i guess we should acknowledge the success of Facebook) or although most of the time i appear offline, when i start my computer the first thing i do is to log in to msn messenger. And it's not only social networking or chatting; there a lot of really good tv series that deserve to be watched, or i don't know it is perhaps simply the internet. Because i have a friend who gets uncomfortable if he doesn't check his e-mail for every two hours. This is an addiction as well, a weird one but it is.

And the strongest type is game addiction, online or not; doesn't matter. Have you ever heard the online text based games omerta or ogame? Omerta is a mafia game inspired from the movie "The Godfather" whereas ogame is a space game inspired from another movie series " Star Wars". I played both of these games, but more omerta, never so intensively. But i was kind of addicted. There was a guy in my neighborhood, he was playing this mafia game. One day I saw this guy who looked so upset. And i thought something really bad happened. When I asked what happened he said that his virtual character had died in the game. I thought "fuck, this is just a game". But he took it pretty serious. So i left him alone there with his mourning, because there was nothing to do for the poor guy.

I don't play too much computer games, but there is one that i have been playing since 2001. It was "Championship Manager" then but now "Football Manager". I am addicted to this game but not because i play intensively (ok sometimes but not always), it's because i play continuously since 2001. I have played all versions ever since i started. Actually being addicted to this game is not that bad. It has some positive side effects. Especially when your computer can not catch up with the technology of the game. The waiting time between the matches and saves or loadings gets longer and longer in every new version, unless you upgrade the computer. And unfortunately Alt+Tab combination only makes the waiting time longer, so not a solution. But what you can do, besides doing nothing while waiting, is to read, doesn't matter what you read; newspaper, book, porn (there is not much reading here, i know) etc. The point is FM or CM addiction can make you gain a very useful habit: reading. You can never imagine how amazing things people had learned because of this.

But the real point is why. Why are the most of the people addicted to sth.? I believe people need addictions, for instance the virtual ones people see them as an alternative to real life, or escaping from the things that they can't in the real life, like role playing. In the real life some are drug addict, some are alcoholic, some are workoholic, so i guess everyone is addicted to sth., because they need to be somehow.

So I am an addict, what about you?

take care till next time

the spoilsport

PS: Here is the link for the demo version of FM 2010. I thought it might be useful after mentioning about the game.

the spoilsport and german course

2009-10-14T20:22:00.005+02:00

I started a German course last week. Although I have been in Germany for more than 3 years, I didn't really had a chance to attend a course. (I had one attempt actually but didn't work because of the schedule conflict.) And after that i did not have time and money at the same time for German course. Actually i had them both at the same time but then the other alternatives were far better than German course.

I realized sth. during the course today. Regardless of your age, your profession or your education; in language courses they treat you as if you are a child. Why would every language teacher try to teach by playing games? I am not a child, neither are the other participants ? But I can understand. As they all behave the same that means this method works even though i haven't figured out the trick yet.

I hope this will work out for me and I can promote to "able to have serious conversations in German" level from " ich kann verstehen aber kann ich nich sprechen*" level.

take care till next time

spoilsport

* I can understand but i can not speak

put.io

2009-10-13T20:23:00.003+02:00

Today I read about a new internet service called put.io. (I am not sure about its validity, all you will read here is rumor.) It's not online yet but they say it will be coming soon. I beleive in today's world, the internet is inevitable for any type of communication and other stuff, ant it also brought into our lives things that we could not even imagine before. So what is new about put.io?

put.io is simply an online storage, but mostly for media files. but the charming thing is that put.io downloads the files (video, music, whatsoever) from different sources (torrent or rapidshare or other sharing servers) and stores them for you. After that you can access and play those files without downloading to your computer and without any quality loss in media. It will be accessible from also iphones, ipod touches or PSP. As expected sharing facility is included, that means you can share your files with your friends. I guess the only disadvatage of this service for now that it will not be free. I don't know about the price but it seems worthwhile for a reasonable price.

As i said in the beginning I am not sure about its validity but the idea seems cool.

take care till next time,

the spoilsport

Halle an der Saale

2009-10-11T19:43:00.017+02:00

Halle city center (1900)
It's been more than 3 years that i moved to Halle, Germany from Istanbul, Turkey. Halle is a city located in middle of Germany (actually check this for more encyclopedia info). Because I'll write about more interesting stuff and how i feel and think about Halle.
It was a master course which brought me to Halle in 2006. Leaving Istanbul, my family and friends (simply my life) wasn't easy. But the more difficult part was to get used to Halle, and even now I am not sure of that.
So Halle is an old East Germany (DDR) city, that is why it is still "developing". It's not like 10 years ago as i have been told but you can tell the difference if you see both the east and the west part of Germany. When I came from Istanbul (such a huge city) to Halle (very small city) my first feeling was bewilderment. I was in a totally new city, country and culture, couldn't speak a word of German (the master course was in English). When I realized that I can not communicate with people because the local people can't speak English, this time it was disappointment that I felt. Later on i made good friends mainly from APS ( that's the master course by the way: Applied Polymer Science). Lectures kept me bussy but we also had chance to explore Halle. The first place that I went in Halle (besides city center) was the best place of Halle; Peissnitz Park. The park is located on the riverside, Saale; very comforting and relaxing. We had too many barbecue parties and soccer games there.

Peissnitz Park

There are also many nice cafes in Halle but I want to mention about two special ones: Roter Horizont abd Brauhaus. Roter Horizont is my favourite, I don't know why all of the Turkish people I know say the same. They serve over hundred types of tees from all over the world. I even have a friend who has started from tee number 1 and he is now at 84 or sth. like that. The other special thing about Roter Horizont is the heisse schokolade (hot chocolate). They don't serve it like mixing some powder with hot milk, what they serve as hot chocolate is actually melt chocolate diluted with milk. By the way Halle is also very famous with its own chocolate as well. Brauhaus on the other hand is a brewery where you can find countless types of bier and they are even freshly brewed.
As I said I made really good friends that I would like to keep in contact as much as we can. A Greek guy for instance, who made me believe that there isn't any better friend for a Turkish other than a Greek when you are both living abroad; or a Dutch guy who actually looks like Indonesian and a Colombian lady (vivicat) and others. The friends are the ones who make your life perfect or suck. I was lucky that my firends made mine perfect in Halle. Most of them left Halle now but we are still in contact.
So the time passed and now i have finished my first three years in Halle (three more to go). The negative feelings that I had about Halle in my first months are gone now. Halle is not my dream city but I am used to it. I like Halle now and I am a Hallenser.

take care till next time

the spoilsport

PS1: I wanna thank to my dear friend juve who ecouraged me to create this blog and mentioned about this blog in her post today. So this is the payback time :) here is her blog and it is not only educational but also fun; unfortunately it is only for those of you who can speak Turkish.
PS2: a video is added into the previous post about the Turkish dance in Dresden.

Turkish night at APME 2009 Dresden

2009-10-09T00:18:00.016+02:00

I am a chemist, a polymer chemist to be exact and at the moment i am making my PhD on ... never mind. It's interesting for me but might be really boring for you. Anyway simply i am a chemist who is dealing with polymers. One of the few advantages (along with the many many disadvantages such as being a modern time slave) of being a scientist (or let's say academic person) that you travel a lot all around the world for conferences, workshops etc. And you get the opportunity to see different places and meet different people.

the simpsons made it pretty clear

So this week i was at Dresden, Germany for APME 2009 conference (Advanced Polymers via Macromolecular Engineering). Dresden is not a city i haven't seen before but it was good to be there when the other alternative is to get dizzy with the smell of chemicals while working at the chem lab.

Maybe i should also mention a little bit about Dresden. the city itself is nice, separated into two sides by the River Elbe as Neustadt (new city) and Altstadt (old city). But the fame of the city actually comes from the history. Dresden is the city which was bombed at the last days of the World War II, and almost totally destroyed.

Back to the conference (don't worry i'll not bother you with boring chemistry stuff), this was my second coference i officially attended. I must admit that it is somehow weird to be in an atmosphere full of academic people. To see them suffering while dealing with tough questions after their presentation is real fun. But the thing that i want to say is about the conference dinner. There was a Turkish group who came from Istanbul Technical University (ITU). In the conference dinner they performed an excellent show: they first performed a Turkish folk dance, then gypsy dance and finally they concluded with a tribute "the king" Michael Jackson" :). (I might be able to add some videos of this performance soon)

They did quite well actually and broke the serious atmosphere of the conference. That was more obvious on the next day: all of the people who had performed last night were treated as celebrities.

It was an interesting and joyful experience for me as well as all the others who were there that night. Take care till next post.

the spoilsport ;)

let's begin

2009-10-09T00:08:00.002+02:00

Hello everybody,

I hadn’t been quite familiar with this blog “thing” before a friend of mine started her own blog. Then I thought “why wouldn’t i start a blog?” But for a long time i postponed this idea and at last here i am.

What you are gonna read ( if you can stand) on this blog is pretty various: travel notes, sports, movies (mostly) etc.; even chemistry sometimes. The main purpose of me creating this blog is to keep in touch with my friends and hopefully make some new friends (kind of socializing on the internet, sounds ironic when you consider people usually say the opposite). Anyway I live in Germany but i am a Turkish, therefore I can not see my friends in Turkey so often. And i feel like even when i meet them too many interesting stories are forgotten to be told. In that manner i believe this blog could help.

I also wanna say sth. about the title ( i am not sure if it’s called like that), “it’s either my way or highway” is a quote from the movie “The Matrix”. I like it and i think somehow it fits to my personality although i get along with all my friends very well which is a good thing. So all i wanna say is, it might sound a bit agressive but this blog won’t be ( maybe sometimes).

So i hope you are gonna enjoy reading my blog, and take care till next time.

the spoilsport ;)